Amy Sacka

On photographing Belle Isle:

My series, Belle Isle, 2016, is a street homage to Detroit's in-city island. I wanted to offer a timeless look at the people, moments and traditions that make Belle Isle one of Detroit's most revered destinations. One of my inspirations for this project was Philip Levine’s poem, Belle Isle, 1949, which offers a sense of nostalgia and carefree youthfulness that I too hope to convey in my photos:

“We stripped in the first warm spring nightand ran down into the Detroit Riverto baptize ourselves...”

Documenting DETROIT is a program of Facing Change: Documenting America (FCDA), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization created by photojournalists in 2009 to address our era of great challenges in the United States through photographs and narratives in collaboration with the Library of Congress.